February 12
Today we get out early for our trip south to the town of Wanaka. We head out amid very grey and rainy skies and are going to gauge the weather to decide if we should detour to Mt. Cook en route to Wanaka. We enjoy some front seat DJ music a la Paulie's ipod. Once we are in the groove, we make good time past Lake Wanaka, past the Alpine Salmon Farm, past the dry lands with sheep grazing, past the rolling hills and mountains of Canterbury and onto the open road. Straight roads that are a pleasure to drive on, even on a grey day. As we are enjoying our drive, all of a sudden we see up ahead an huge hawk that is picking up road kill right on the center line of the highway....we are approaching quickly and as the hawk begins to take flight, roadkill in its claws, we drive smack right into it with our car. There is no time to stop.....we kept thinking the hawk would clear out.....it makes a disgusting thud on the front grill. As we stop a while later at a rest area, no one wants to inspect the front of the car....at least no one named Sharon. It seems that EVERYONE wants to have a look except me....I'm totally grossed out and head off to the ladies room while averting my eyes. It will take a long time to get rid of that sight in my mind....yuck! While at the rest area, we inquire as to the weather conditions up at Mt. Cook and are told that it is totally clouded over with virtually no visibility. We continue on our way anyway and arrive at the turn off for the mountain shortly afterward. It is about an hour detour each way, but we want to take the chance to see the mountain and the glacier while we are in this part of the world. We arrive at Mount Cook and it is in fact clouded over, but there is a glimmer of clearing in the distance. We go inside to find out about tours of the glacier and are told that the next tour is at 2pm, much later than we had planned to stay since we are on the road and want to get to our destination by evening. We opt to do a self-tour and short hike. After a visit to the Sir Edmund Hillary Museum and view of the exhibit there, we head back to Tasman Valley. We park and put on sunscreen, since the sky is turning bright blue with puffy white clouds. We are in luck....the sky is clear and we get a fantastic view of the peak of Mt. Cook. We climb up the steep cliff to the vista for the glacier and are rewarded with a great view of the large glacier.....you might not recognize it since it is covered in dirt and rocks...you can see the ice cliffs where chunks have broken off and are floating in the lake below. The water is a murky, grey color an indication that it is VERY cold according to Paulie. We soak up the view and a few rays before returning to the car and getting back on the road. We make good time to Wanaka and pass by a few attractions that we want to revisit the following day. We have an ice-cream and ask directions to our Holiday Park. We get settled in, visit the grocery and return home so the kids and take a dip in the VERY cold pool.
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